[math-fun] Wikipedia glitch?
Folks, it's hardly maths and it certainly isn't fun, I know; but ... I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim " (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . " Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly " ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. " Can somebody please check that this is not some individual glitch affecting only my ancient Mac? I have attempted to access the relevant bug search & report pages, but rapidly concluded that negotiating that particular jungle would prove a task for an explorer more heroically committed than myself ... It is a somewhat alarming prospect that numerical constants on Wikipedia pages may be subject to elementary errors which are impossible to correct! Fred Lunnon
By the time I looked, at 1:52 pm, the problem had already been fixed, so I have no idea what was wrong. On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:
Folks, it's hardly maths and it certainly isn't fun, I know; but ...
I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim
" (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . "
Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly
" ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. "
Can somebody please check that this is not some individual glitch affecting only my ancient Mac? I have attempted to access the relevant bug search & report pages, but rapidly concluded that negotiating that particular jungle would prove a task for an explorer more heroically committed than myself ...
It is a somewhat alarming prospect that numerical constants on Wikipedia pages may be subject to elementary errors which are impossible to correct!
Fred Lunnon
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
This article was fixed (changing the 15 to a 13) last Wednesday, and shows up correctly on my Mac. Try flushing your browser cache. On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 1:44 PM, Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:
Folks, it's hardly maths and it certainly isn't fun, I know; but ...
I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim
" (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . "
Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly
" ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. "
Can somebody please check that this is not some individual glitch affecting only my ancient Mac? I have attempted to access the relevant bug search & report pages, but rapidly concluded that negotiating that particular jungle would prove a task for an explorer more heroically committed than myself ...
It is a somewhat alarming prospect that numerical constants on Wikipedia pages may be subject to elementary errors which are impossible to correct!
Fred Lunnon
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
-- Andy.Latto@pobox.com
It displays correctly as 13/16 on my laptop (old, vista + chrome). On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 11:44 AM, Fred lunnon <fred.lunnon@gmail.com> wrote:
Folks, it's hardly maths and it certainly isn't fun, I know; but ...
I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim
" (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . "
Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly
" ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. "
Can somebody please check that this is not some individual glitch affecting only my ancient Mac? I have attempted to access the relevant bug search & report pages, but rapidly concluded that negotiating that particular jungle would prove a task for an explorer more heroically committed than myself ...
It is a somewhat alarming prospect that numerical constants on Wikipedia pages may be subject to elementary errors which are impossible to correct!
Fred Lunnon
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
Fred Lunnon wrote:
I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim
" (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . "
Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly
" ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. "
I see the correct formula on the rendered web page as well as in the source. Perhaps you'd visited the page before and got a cached image? -- g
I thought I'd excluded the cache possibility by changing from Firefox to Safari. I've tried quitting and restarting both, but the problem recurs. But I have now just tried using Internet Explorer, which does display 13/16 correctly. It evidently must be some kind of obscure caching problem that survives quit and restart --- I have had similarly baffling experiences with Maple in the past. [Why is there never any explicit utility available in any of these systems for reliably unclogging their attics?] However, I now begin to suspect that the page view has been mirrored at site somewhere in Europe, which has failed to update. This theory is supported by attempting to refresh the page, which then fails to display the offending line at all! Thanks to all for their assistance. WFL On 3/26/12, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com> wrote:
Fred Lunnon wrote:
I've come across a curious bug at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange's_four-square_theorem in the section Proof using the Hurwitz integers where (under my browsers) one displayed formula terminates in the proud claim
" (1/4)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 + (1/2)^2 = 15/16 < 1 . "
Why the fuss --- surely all I need to do is click the edit button to call up the source text, and correct the TeX. The latter certainly looks to be current --- it shows the same typo "consequense" (sic) on the following line --- but there the corresponding formula already reads correctly
" ... =\frac{13}{16}<1. "
I see the correct formula on the rendered web page as well as in the source. Perhaps you'd visited the page before and got a cached image?
-- g _______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun
participants (5)
-
Allan Wechsler -
Andy Latto -
Fred lunnon -
Gareth McCaughan -
James Buddenhagen